Nick's borrowed money from Thigo (a loan shark) and he's behind with his payments. Thigo gives him 24-hours to repay the $100,000 he owes and takes his mother hostage as an extra incentive for Nick to come up with the money.
A loan shark gives ex-con Nick a period of 24 hours in order to pay back the money he owes. Up against it, Nick involves his best mate on a multi-part mission in order to raise the cash before it's too late for them both.—Anonymous
A loan shark Thigo (Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson) gives ex-con Nick (Tamer Hassan) a period of 24 hours in order to pay back the money (100,000 pounds) he owes. Nick is 4 weeks behind on his payments. If Nick fails to produce the money, Thigo promises to kill him.Thigo has kidnapped Nick's mother (Brenda Blethyn) as insurance that Nick does his part to come up with the money. Nick had borrowed that money from Thigo a few years earlier to take care of his mother while he was in jail.Nick runs a travel agency with partner Bing (Danny Dyer), but the business is yet to take off in any meaningful way. Nick's mother is confined to a wheelchair.
Thigo knows that a crisis is going through the London financial markets. As such, the bonuses are down, and the brokers and the bankers are not buying as many drugs and have to reduce the quality of the prostitutes for their entertainment. This reduces the incomes of the pimps and the dealers, who are the biggest debtors to Thigo. The rap on the knuckles is not working anymore and the punters are simply refusing to pay up.Thigo gets Nick's belongings repossessed from where he stayed with his girlfriend Frankie. Frankie goes back to working as a dancer as she feels that Nick cannot support her.
Nick then finds that Thigo has forbidden anyone to loan any money to Nick because he wants to make an example of Nick so that his other debtors fall in line. Thigo wanted to kill Nick, no matter what. Nick was "Dead Man Running".Nick steals 3000 $ from his loan shark friend Curtis by pretending to beat him up (as else Thigo would kill Curtis for helping Nick out) & then gets into a boxing match (opponent unknowingly being one of Thigo's goons, who was sent in when the boxing match promoter informed Thigo about what Nick planned to do) & wins it to get another 6000 $.Meanwhile Nick's mother is hostage to Thigo's goon Jhonny Sands (Phil Davis) in her home & she starts being friendly to her.
Nick then rigs a dog race. Bing had a friend at the dog races, who offers to drug the top favorite for the race for 300 pounds, and to ensure that the 2nd best dog becomes a sure bet. The tally increases to 36,000 pounds. Before leaving, Nick places a 2nd bet on a dog with 80-1 odds in one of the upcoming races.Then Nick buys a kilo of drugs & gets a prostitute friend to cut it. Bing finds a customer in Manchester, 3 hours from London. Bing says that Thigo has got the whole city spooked and nobody will do any business with them, so Manchester is their best bet. Nick has 13 hours to go before the deadline expires. Nick steals a cab to deliver it. The customer is having a huge party that very night and his regular supplier has suddenly gone missing, so he is desperate and is willing to pay the top price.On the way Nick and Bing stopped by a highway patrolman who gets suspicious & Nick has to knock him out to escape. They find the customer but find that the coke is half powder. The cutting girl fleeced half the coke & sold it back to Thigo. Nick gets 35,000 pounds for half the coke & a contact for a rich guy with a killing contract.
Nick accepts the contract as he is desperate. Its 3 am & Thigo's deadline is noon. He enters the house of the target, takes him out to the woods & shoots him.Meanwhile Nick's mother steals Jhonny's gun when he falls asleep midnight & shoots him when he resists the following morning. Jhonny is dead. Mother calls Nick, but he is asleep on the train & she leaves voicemail, which Nick never picks up.
Nick catches a train to London. Thigo has a man on the train & he steals Nicks bag with all the money (totaling 100,000 pounds, including the drug money and the money from the killing contract) in it. Nick is about to rob a bank when his girlfriend Frankie (Monet Mazur), who does custom burlesque jobs, calls him & tells him that she's with an old rich client with a safe. Nick gets there to find a safe full of jewels. But they are fakes & he gets 20,000 pounds for it.Nick goes back to robbing a bank. In line at the counter, Nick learns that the 2nd bet he placed on the dog track last night, with 80-1 odds has come through. He had put 1,000 pounds on it. He gathers the money & reaches Thigo just in time.
Thigo leaves but is pursued by a biker & shot. Turns out Nick never killed his contract target the previous night. He faked the shooting. The target was an assassin himself & as a favor he kills Thigo & retrieves the 2 bags each with 100,000 in it from Thigo & returns it to Nick as repaying the favor.
